Bulgaria’s Justice Minister resigns

Bulgaria’s Minister of Justice Danail Kirilov submitted his resignation on August 26.

The resignation comes after talks with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

The decision of the PM on whether to accept the resignation or not will be made after discussions with the coalition partners.

Valeri Simeonov, the leader of NFSB (a constituent party of the United Patriots, which a minority partner in the ruling coalition) spoke out strongly against the resignation in a comment for BNT. The other party from the United Patriots alliance, IMRO, remained silent, and so does GERB.

The resignation of Justice Minister Danail Kirilov came as a surprise not only to the long-standing opposition, but also to those in power. The Council of Ministers itself remained silent about the motives. The only one who commented was Transport Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, who was also surprised.

Rosen Zhelyazkov, Minister of Transport: By the way, I understood about the justice minister’s resignation from you. Resignations are always a personal act. The Prime Minister is the person who proposes them for approval to the National Assembly, as far as I understand, that is how it is under the coalition agreement, this is to come after talks with the coalition partners.

NFSB leader Valeri Simeonov strongly objected to Danail Kirilov's departure.

Valeri Simeonov, leader of NFSB: This is a man of value, this is a man of honesty, this is a man who no one could ever accuse of corruption or anything else.

According to Simeonov, the ruling party has succumbed to the pressure of the protesters and the NFSB will definitely not support this resignation.

Valeri Simeonov, leader of the NFSB: Because of media publications and because of the pressure of a handful of loud speaking candidates for power, such a sacrifice is being offered to them. It just reminds me of barbarian tribes when human sacrifices were offered with a prayer for rain.

For the leader of "Yes, Bulgaria!" and co-chair of non-parliamentary opposition "Democratc Bulgaria", Hristo Ivanov, the resignation of the Minister of Justice is not enough, according to him, Borissov-Geshev-Peevski should resign.

Danail Kirilov is one of the authors of the draft amendments to the Constitution submitted by the ruling GERB party. It is not yet clear whether the draft would have enough support to convene a Grand National Assembly and vote.

Kirilov graduated in law from Sofia University, was a lawyer for former Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, and until 2009 was a municipal councilor from the Bulgarian Socialist Party. He was the district governor of Sofia region, after he joined GERB party, as well as an MP in two National Assemblies. Shortly after taking office as Justice Minister, a group of lawyers demanded his resignation.

Kirilov's name became famous a month and a half ago when he likened the leader of "Yes, Bulgaria!", Hristo Ivanov, on Facebook to the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. Afterwards, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov personnaly forbsde the Minister of Justice to post on the social network.

(The post Kirilov made at that time was about an initiative on July 7 carried out by the leader of the non-parliamentary opposition "Democratic Bulgaria" coalition, Hristo Ivanov, and two fellow party mebers tried, but were prevented by bodyguards, to reach by boat the beach which is adjacent to a property with a marina and a home known to be used by the founder and honorary chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), Ahmed Dogan, as his summer residence. The event, followed by other similar acts, sparked anti-government protests which have been going on for nearly months now).

Kirilov himself once promised to resign before the Supreme Judicial Council. "If the monitoring (referring to the EC monitoring under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism for Bulgaria) is not dropped, I will resign as Minister of Justice," Kirilov said at the time.

The monitoring for Bulgaria was not lifted, but Danail Kirilov remained in his post. His resignation was also demanded due to the lack of machine voting in elections.

Asked for comment today, IMRO leader Krassimir Karakachanov did not answer his phone. Kirilov himself also chose not to speak for the time being. Volya party leader Veselin Mareshki commented that it was not time for new cabinet reshuffles.

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Kirilov was appointed Justice Minister in April 2019, replacing Tsetska Tsacheva, who resigned following media reports that politicians from the ruling centre-right GERB purchased high-end apartments at below market prices.

At the time of his appointment as Justice Minister, Kirilov was the head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee and had been an MP for Borissov’s GERB party since 2014.

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